


an offer that can't be refused

by helsinkibaby



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Age Difference, Comment Fic, F/M, Het, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-27
Updated: 2016-04-27
Packaged: 2018-06-04 22:20:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6677593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At a family vacation, Joe watches the water.</p>
            </blockquote>





	an offer that can't be refused

**Author's Note:**

> Theme: seasons  
> Prompt: Arrow/Flash/Legends of Tomorrow 'verse (TV), any/any, hot summer nights by the lake

The sun is slowly heading for the horizon, painting the sky over the lake a riot of oranges and pinks and reds. The water is calm now, most of the swimmers having left for the evening. Only Barry and Iris remain and Joe watches them from the front porch of their holiday home with a smile on his face. Some things, he notes, never change - Iris loved the water from the very first time he and Francine brought her swimming, only crying when they'd taken her out to bring her home. From the look on Barry's face, he's having the same type of trouble trying to get her out of the water and Joe narrows his eyes as he checks his soon-to-be son-in-law's shoulders which are looking a nice shade of pink. Lucky for Barry he heals quickly. 

Not that he can blame the kids for living in the water on a day like today where the mercury was hitting the heights and there was nary a breeze to be found. Even Cisco had given in to the allure of the cool blue water, joining the others as they splashed and laughed. He'd been the first one out though, is currently schooling Wally in some damn online game that Joe doesn't pretend to understand. 

He'd been the only one who hadn't made it to the lake - family vacations were one thing but he still was very aware that he was the dad and they were the kids. He was content to watch from the shade.

Mostly.  

"Penny for your thoughts." 

As if she knew what he was thinking, as if the direction of his thoughts summoned her, Caitlin's voice, low and teasing, comes from behind him. He turns his head to look down at her, grins as he accepts the beer she's holding out. Her now free hand slides around his waist, cool through the material of his shirt. A shiver that has nothing to do with cold runs through him. 

"I'm just wondering how long it'll take Bar to get her out of there," he says, jutting his chin in the direction of the lake and Caitlin's smile turns knowing. 

"I'm sure he'll make her an offer she can't refuse." Her face is perfectly innocent and anyone who doesn't know her as well as Joe would miss the twitch of her lips, the glint of devilish amusement in her eyes. 

"You trying to give me a heart attack?" he wonders and she shrugs, raises her own bottle of beer to her lips. 

"Why didn't you come in with us?" It's a sharp change of subject but he hears the genuine curiosity underneath it. 

It's his turn to shrug. "The kids don't want their old man embarrassing them," he says. When it looks like she's going to object, he looks at her pointedly, makes no effort to hide the way his eyes roam over her body, taking in the gauzy, patterned cover-up she's thrown on over her bikini, the acres of smooth skin that are exposed. "Besides... I was kinda enjoying the view." 

This time, she doesn't try to hide her smile and her flushed cheeks speak to her pleasure - and maybe, hopefully, to something else as well. Which is the other reason why he hadn't gone into the lake with her - everyone knows about their relationship and, mostly, they are fine with it. But every so often, there are lingering looks and second glances and furrowed brows thrown in their direction and any PDA in the lake during a family vacation would, he fears, be crossing a line that they were better not crossing. 

"It's too bad," she says, affecting a little pout, almost like she wants him to believe she hadn't had the time of her life out there. "I feel like I've hardly seen you all day." 

Joe steps closer to her, his body flush with hers and drops his head to kiss her. She tastes like the beer in her hand and the salt of her sweat and when she uses her hand, still on his hip, to pull their lower bodies into even closer contact and nips at his lower lip, he finds himself thinking that family vacations aren't such a good idea after all. 

Her eyes are huge and dilated when she pulls back. "It's going to be warm tonight," she tells him, tilting her head and moving against him so that her hair sways, tickles his arm. "How about, when everyone's in bed, we head down to the lake, just us?" She rises on her tiptoes, brings her lips to his ear. "Swimsuit optional." 

A laugh bubbles up in his throat. "Now that?" He kisses her again. "Is an offer I can't refuse." 


End file.
